Last week, Matchstick invited me to a whiskey tasting for The Macallan. I have never been a whiskey girl (really, I’ve just never taken the time to try it much), but I figured this would be a good chance to learn more about it and find out what I like.
And so, my roommate and I put on our fancy shoes and strutted down to 99 Sudbury last Wednesday night.
Upon our arrival, we were handed a Macallan coin to redeem for our first taste of whiskey of the night. I was sad to give this away; it would have been a perfect little souvenir of the evening. Having both come right from work, we bee-lined towards the awesome cheese and prosciutto spread in the reception area. I’ll say this: I have always hated blue cheese, but whatever kind they had, it was amazing. I wish I had grabbed more. At the host’s suggestion, I stocked up on a couple different types of cheese and bread before we were ushered into the main room. We took a seat at a high table near the back, and anxiously waited for the tasting to begin.
Enter The Macallan brand ambassador. This man knew so much about whiskey, and did a great job of explaining how to go about tasting your own. We learned that you should keep your mouth slightly parted when smelling whiskey, and I couldn’t believe what a difference that made. He talked us through how much water one should add to open up your drink without watering it down, and gave a great little introduction to each of the glasses we tried.
Over the next 30 minutes, we tried:
- The Macallan Sherry Oak (12 year old)
- The Macallan Fine Oak (15 year old)
- The Macallan Sherry Oak Cask Strength
- The Macallan Sherry Oak (18 year old)
My favourite? The 18 year (this girl has expensive taste). I never would have tried the Cask Strength on my own, but when you combined it with dark chocolate, it was great.
I really enjoyed the lead up to the different types of whiskey, and the slideshow during the “tasting time” with music, movies, and events from the period (12 years ago, 15 years ago, 18 years ago) really made you appreciate how long each whiskey has been in the process of being made.
My one suggestion for the night would have been to make the session run a bit longer – we barely had time to grab our cheese before the presentation, nevermind do any networking! I would have loved to go back into the other room after the tasting to mingle with everyone and discuss the whiskeys (and maybe have another taste of our faves).
The roomie and I are now considering having a whiskey night of our own over the holidays for our friends. We just need to get our hands on that copper ice baller!
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